---------- Original message ---------- Subject: Re: Using HD > 128GB in G4 Macs! Date: Thursday, 07. April 2011 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] > 1) The magic number is 131,072 megabytes. Partitions must be wholly below > the 131,072 megabyte "line", or they must be wholly above the 131,072 > megabyte "line". A partition which "crosses the line", that is, it "spans" > the line, is very likely to be useless on all pre-QS 2002 models.
Useless only when not hacking around this limit – either by using the LBA48 Open Firmware property or by modifying KeyLargo.kext to ignore this property. To be sure to start/end a partition at the 128 GB = 131,072 MB line, either leave some space inbetween or create your boot partition before applying the LBA48 hack, and then (using Linux mac-fdisk) make the rest of the drive usable in a partition which is in whole behind the 128 GB line. This may be a little complicated, but the best way to do it. There may be another way for the repartitioning after the LBA48 hack. But this needs to be tested/confirmed first. I only heard from users here in this forum that Disk Utility refuses to “activate” the rest of the disk for partitioning even with the LBA48 property, if it has been partitioned before without this property. This is due to the APM (Apple Partition Map) indicating the size of the disk, and this will simply say: 128 GB. The APM needs to be updated first, and the only way to do this so far is to use mac-fdisk in Linux. > You used to be able to get "High Cap" for free from OWC > with the purchase of a large drive (>120 GB), but no longer. Also, the > old, "free" version of "High Cap" has been replaced by a version which > supports the later MacOSes (later than 10.4.x, anyway). Is there a location where this old and free High Cap has been preserved on the internet? What will the High Cap driver do on a G3 B&W which has the buggy IDE chip CMD646, that has not only the slave drive issue, but also the UDMA incompatibility? Big drives are almost certainly UDMA (UltraATA) drives. > 4) It is possible to support large ATA drives by using a "SCSIDE" > converter, and then attaching these ATA drives to a supported SCSI > controller (Adaptec 29xx with Mac firmware, et. al.). "SCSIDE" has > supported large drives for at least 10 years. "SCSIDE" was once the only > way to support large drives on Macs, and I actually had a Beige G3 in > which every hard drive was UW-SCSI or LVD/SE SCSI and used "SCSIDE" > converters. An expensive solution, but it DID give large drive support > when there was no other option. Not an option for me. I got me an ACARD AEC-6280M ATA-133 expansion card that supports LBA48. It runs flawlessly so far, only S.M.A.R.T. is not supported. The drives are reported as SCSI disks, which is only ugly when using Mac OS X 10.5 (the drive icons indicate SCSI, but since they really are IDE, this isn't a good thing). But on the B&W, obviously, I'm limited to Tiger anyhow. Cheers, Andreas aka Mac User #330250 -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
